where it all began

Grab the popcorn or a snack, we have to rewind a while back to tell this story! #highschoolsweethearts

Let’s go back to 2008. We were going into our senior year of high school. It was all about finishing college applications, waiting to hear back from schools, which would determine our fate, and, of course, trying to fight that inevitable “seniorities” syndrome. I had been dating someone sophomore and most of junior year of high school, one of Michael’s friends actually. After that relationship ended I went through a phase. A weird phase, let’s just leave it at that. Weird. Looking back, I feel like I was confused and anxious about all the change to come (going to college, making new friends, no boyfriend, living independently, no family to go home to everyday). If you know me, you know I’m a homebody, I love plans, and I avoid change. All things I am working on, still. But you can see how a big life change was pending and I didn’t know how to handle it all.

So, here we are, fall of senior year. I attended the homecoming dance with a wonderful guy. Bryan. If you’re out there, thanks for being a great date! A few weeks go by and I remember seeing Michael in the halls between classes. I knew I wanted to talk to him, but I apparently had to make the first move. Now get this, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was still a thing when I was in high school. Did I just age myself? Here’s where the fun begins! I messaged Michael on AIM one afternoon after school. I’m pretty sure my exact words were, “Hey! What’s up?” and it worked. We’ve been talking ever since.

It’s November of 2008, we had been talking online and texting for a few weeks and we finally make a plan to hang out for the first time. At this point, if I wanted to hangout with him, I had to tell my parents about him. I knew they’d be hesitant because he was a football player who hung out with the “popular” crowd and we went through all of high school in different circles of friends.

High School Musical 3 had just come out and I had planned to go with my two younger sisters. Sue me, yes, I liked High School Musical in high school. It’s whatever. The day we decided to go, Michael said he wanted to come too but I honestly thought he was kidding. I mean, come on, a high school, football player, cool guy, wanted to come watch this silly movie with me and my two younger sisters? Next thing I knew, my sisters and I were picking up our tickets at the movie theater booth and who walks in? Yep. When I told my parents he showed up to watch High School Musical 3 in theaters with us, my mom’s response was, “wow, he must really like you.” I’m guessing that was the case because we’ve been inseparable ever since.

The next week he asked me to grab lunch at Potbelly. He picked me up in his bright red truck and off to Potbelly we went. What I thought was just grabbing a sandwich as friends who kind of like each other turned into three hours of sitting and talking. And not just small talk, it was real conversation. It was obvious we had differences; the way we were raised and grew up, our groups of friends, even some of our interests and activities. Despite the differences, I was SO intrigued by his reserved demeanor and the interest he took in me.

Okay, now here’s where things got real. He asked me on a “real” date. He asked me out to dinner, to Rio Grande (Uncle Julio’s as its now called). We both dressed up, more than we did for our Potbelly outing. I’ll never forget those cargo pants and blue button up shirt he was wearing, styling haha. Michael rolled up in his red truck, got out and knocked on the door of my parents’ house, shook my dad’s hand and off we went. I won’t lie, I coached him via text earlier in the day that that is what my parents would expect and to do that to start things off on the right foot (LOL). He passed the test. That night, November 22, 2008, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

We finished out our senior year of high school and off to college we went. Michael was headed to Radford University and I was off to James Madison University (JMU). We decided to attempt the whole “long distance” thing as we parted ways for college. Michael didn’t last long at Radford (that’s his story to tell haha) but attended a community college close to home while working full-time, all in hopes of transferring to JMU! Sure enough, he joined me there for our junior and senior year. Despite the college distance and drama, we never broke up. People don’t believe us when we say that!

So college goes by and we’ve got five years together under our belt. Upon graduating college, Michael started his career as a business analyst and I had no idea what the heck I was doing because I decided that I did not want to make a career out of what I studied, dietetics. I ended up as a dental assistant until I got into dental hygiene school!

Fast forward two years post-grad and I am in the middle of dental hygiene school and Michael is making moves in his career and moved out of his parents house to his own apartment. November of 2015 rolls around, just about 7 years after we had started dating and he PROPOSES! Oh, it was wonderful. It was perfect. So beautifully planned out with family and friends to celebrate with us.

We decided to wait until I graduated from dental hygiene school, which made our engagement about 18 months long. During this time of wedding planning I completed dental hygiene school, passed all my board exams, received my license, and was hired and set to start my career when we returned from our honeymoon. We had plenty of time to plan our beautiful wedding. So many family members and friends traveled near and far to witness us get married…and to party it up in celebration. We got married June 10, 2017 and even though we didn’t realize all that marriage would bring (good and bad), we were in it, together.

We moved into a new apartment together. We loved that apartment. We met friends in the community and started our lived together there. We had been together for going on nine years, but this was the real start to our lives together.

Even though we spent those early married years traveling and experiencing all the things, those first two years of marriage were really hard. Harder than the college years, harder than the distance relationship, harder than planning a wedding which back in school full-time. We faced many challenges, some of which we will keep to ourselves for now. What I will say is that when people tell you that marriage is hard, they are RIGHT. But if both partners are willing to work toward a healthy and happy relationship, anything is possible.

We faced some major challenges, made some changes, and wound up in a much better place. Our two year wedding anniversary rolled around (June 10, 2019) and so much had happened and changed since our wedding day, the day we committed our lives to each other. We thought it would be nice to rewrite vows and privately renew them to each other. We escaped to a beautiful beach in Florida and recommitted to each other. This was one of my favorite days. Gosh, it actually made me fall in love with Michael all over again! This day was monumental in our relationship.

We returned from this trip feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready to conquer the world together. Michael was finishing up the Masters degree he had started, I was thriving in my work environment and my personal training business, we were looking to buy a home, and thinking toward starting a family..

…if you’re still reading along, congratulations for making it this far in the saga that is our love story haha.

Just two months after our vow renewal trip I experienced an early missed miscarriage. It was a very confusing time and I have never publicly mentioned it, but maybe it’s a story another time. This experience definitely kickstarted our desire to start a family…so a lot happened in the following months . We bought a house in September and then found out we were pregnant again in November! This time, with Adelynn, our sweet girl we now love on every day.

Needless to say, the end of 2019 was a crazy time. Michael accomplished some personal milestones, we bought our first home, found out we were expecting, attended our 10 year high school reunion and Thanksgiving celebrations keeping our little (BIG) secret :) and started planning toward what the future would bring! New mortgage, new degree and promotion (for Michael), new family member on the way, new everything! Life was really about to change. In the best ways possible.

So that brings us to today. I’m sitting here next to my husband, with Adelynn, in our home as I write this.

Every day I just think of all the people that have been along with us through everything. All the phases of life, the good times, and the bad. We’ve experienced unconditional support from family and friends, with our relationship and our new role as parents. I want to offer that same support to others, especially women, because I don’t think we would be where we are now without it.

One thing that has really proved to be true over the years is that you are never alone in what you are going through. I have felt very alone at times in the past couple of years but the more I shared or connected with people, the more I realized that everyone has stuff going on…and let’s be real, LIFE IS HARD.

Though this blog post is more or less an introduction of myself, my husband, and how we got to where we are now, I hope to share a variety of topics that many women can relate to. The real stuff. I want to share resources and products that have made life easier and share my feelings and perspective so that others know they are not alone!

Until next time friends xoxo Cali